A robot performing communication with a person has been developed. For example, there is a nursing care robot or an education robot. Such a robot performs an operation such as “making a response to a request from a person with sound voice”.
It is important for a robot performing communication with a person to perform natural communication without making the person feel uncomfortable. Therefore, a technique which enables a robot to perform natural communication with a person has been developed.
In a robot disclosed in Patent Document 1, a person's face is detected from an image obtained by capturing the surroundings, and the eyes or a head of the robot is directed in a direction of the face so that communication is started.
In a robot disclosed in Patent Document 2, a person's face is detected from an image obtained by capturing the surroundings, a degree of matching between eyesight of the person and eyesight of the robot is increased by tracking the person's face, and then a service is provided to the person.
Patent Document 3 discloses a robot that calculates a forward facing direction of a person's face or body from an image obtained by imaging the surroundings, moves toward the front side of the person's face or body, and then has conversations with the person.
Patent Document 4 discloses a human body detection apparatus that detects whether or not an object is a person on the basis of a height and a temperature of the object. The human body detection apparatus handles an object as a person if a height of the target object is larger than a predetermined height, and a temperature of the target object is higher than a predetermined temperature. The human body detection apparatus differentiates a small animal, an instrument, and a person from each other by comparing a height of an object with a predetermined height.